As
Nepal Workers
Die In Qatar,
UN Envoy Has
No Comment,
Another to
Visit
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 3 --
Amid deaths in
Qatar of
construction
workers
from Nepal and
elsewhere,
Inner City
Press on
October 2
asked Peter
Sutherland,
Special
Representative
of
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon
on
International
Migration and
Development
what the UN is
doing about
Qatar.
Qatar
has a Lounge
in the
renovated UN;
it is
celebrated
including by
Ban
for its role
in Syria
(despite
pouring in
arms to
dubious rebel
groups).
Sutherland
told
Inner City
Press, "I
can't comment,
I don't know
the
facts." Video
here, from
Minute 23:16.
He went on to
praise
"progress" in
the United
Arab Emirate,
while noting
38 to
40 domestic
workers
sentenced to
death in Saudi
Arabia. (As
Inner
City Press reported,
one from Sri
Lanka was
beheaded.)
How
could
Sutherland not
know about
these well
publicized
stories from
Qatar as they
prepare for
their
controversial
World Cup?
Inner City
Press gave
Sutherland a
business card,
if and when he
had a comment.
A
day later,
hearing
nothing, Inner
City Press put
the same
question to
Francois
Crepeau, UN
Special
Rapporteur on
the protection
of
migrants,
noting that is
listed as
traveling to
Qatar November
3 - 10
(and seeking
to go to Sri
Lanka). Video
here, from
Minute 20:47.
Crepeau
replied
that precisely
because he is
going to
Qatar, he
could not
comment. He
had at least
read the
articles;
after the
briefing he
told Inner
City Press he
will hand
Qatar a report
on his last
day
there as well
as holding a
press
conference. He
did not know
if it
would be
streamed on
the Internet
-- it should
be.
He
said he has
asked
requested to
visit Sri
Lanka, but it
has not been
answered. Video
here, in
Minute 23.
Inner
City Press
continues to
ask: why
won't Ban
Ki-moon
release his
report
on UN inaction
in Sri Lanka
in 2009?
And now, why
doesn't Ban
Ki-moon
say something
about the
mistreatment
and death of
construction
workers in
Qatar. Is this
"Sports and
Development"?
Watch
this site.
Footnote:
The
UN's webcast
archive of the
press
conference
including
Francois
Crepeau
mistakenly
says that
Abdelhamid El
Jamri was
there - he was
not. The Free
UN Coalition
for Access has
raised this to
UN Webcast
and its
supervisor,
Stephane
Dujarric, so
far without
response.
This
stands in
contrast to
Dujarric's
solicitous
responses to another's
online
suggestion
about INSTRAW,
and to a
favored or
courted
journalist
having
difficulty
accessing the
UN. This UN's
responses
are partial.
It
considers some
good (like Saudi
sponsored
Syria rebel
boss Ahmad al
Jarba, who met
with Ban
Ki-moon
and was allowed
to have
a still
unexplained faux
"UN briefing"
with Dujarric's
partners),
and some
are ignored or
threatened.
But does this
UN have this
right? Watch
this site.
, 
